It's definitely not a hifi-only thing. Which isn't to excuse it!
There are parallels with sectors like automotive where everyone involved - manufacturer, advertising agency, media and social media company, retailer (often tied to former), reviewer and, yes, customer all conspire with each other to encourage upselling - those fancy wheels, BMW's "concierge" service (who ever actually used that?), etc. Other sectors are available. Like watches. Or bikes (the ones with pedals), apparently.
Still, at least cars, bikes, watches and hifi do something. The whole exclusivity/willy-waving thing is taken to extremes in jewellery and medium-high fashion where it's all about being seen to wear something... and not about wearing clothes for warmth or dignity.
In all the above, "pride of ownership" is probably the driving force of many transactions. It's the consumer society/capitalist economy in which we live. Its lifeblood is growth, and growth means making people dissatisfied with what they were delighted to buy only N years ago (built-in obsolescence). That social/economic force can drive fabulous creativity in technology and in design, but it can also drive vacuous marketing, huge waste and in some circumstances cynical exploitation.
In hifi, sometimes (more often than not) I tut at it; sometimes I think I might as well join in and take a slice of it; and sometimes I join the party as a willing consumer. Funny old world.